Jeannette RANKIN

(1880-1973)

RANKIN, Jeannette, a
Representative from Montana; born near Missoula, Missoula County,
Mont., June 11, 1880; attended the public schools, and was
graduated from the University of Montana at Missoula in 1902;
student at the School of Philanthropy, New York City in 1908 and
1909; social worker in Seattle, Wash., in 1909; engaged in
promoting the cause of woman suffrage in the State of Washington in
1910, in California in 1911, and in Montana 1912-1914; visited New
Zealand in 1915 and worked as a seamstress in order to gain
personal knowledge of social conditions; elected as a Republican to
the Sixty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1917-March 3, 1919); was the
first woman to be elected to the United States House of
Representatives; did not seek renomination in 1918, but was an
unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Senator;
was also an unsuccessful candidate on an independent ticket for
election to the United States Senate; engaged in social work;
elected to the Seventy-seventh Congress (January 3, 1941-January 3,
1943); was not a candidate for renomination in 1942 to the
Seventy-eighth Congress; resumed lecturing and ranching; member,
National Consumers League; field worker, Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom; member, National
Council for Prevention of War; remained leader and lobbyist for
peace and women’s rights until her death in Carmel, Calif.,
May 18, 1973; cremated; ashes scattered on ocean,
Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.